A George H. Mead source page

Originally published as:

George Herbert Mead, "A Theory of Emotions from the Physiological Standpoint", (Abstract of a paper read to the third annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, 1894), Psychological Review 2, (1895): 162-164.

Editors' notes

This brief two paragraph statement of a physiological theory of emotion is part of a much large work developed by Mead with Dewey. The work, together with the four Dewey papers, is an attempt to integrate much of the material dealt with by Wundt's associationalist school of psychology together with contemporary trends in physiology and physiological and comparative psychology. When taken together, and in light of Mead's criticisms of psychophysical measurement, they constitute the foundational papers of functional psychology.

The arguments presented within the set of papers resurface in the introductory sections of Mead's lectures in Social Psychology, especially in his discussion of Darwin's Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, and Wundt's analysis of gestures. The ideas laid down in this set of papers are largely assumed in the remainder of Mead's work.

Site Navigation

A Theory of Emotions from the Physiological Standpoint

Prof. Dewey having shown that it is possible to make a complete teleological statement of the emotions along the line of the discharge theory, it is interesting to see how far such a statement may be paralleled by a physiological theory.

(163) This would involve, also, a physiological theory of pleasure and pain. As pain can be differentiated from the sensations in connection with which it generally appears in consciousness, as it shows itself under circumstances in which the tissue of the end organs or the nerves themselves are affected, and as in the diseases in which we find pain as a constant concomitant, those parts are affected, which are richly supplied with blood vessels by means of supporting and nourishing tissues (Rindfleisch's intermediarer Ernahrunsapparat), and as in those diseases which pass usually without pain (as in the catarrhs of the various mucous membranes) the tissues affected are poorly supplied with such blood vessels, and enter into relation with the capillaries generally through the lymph, for the purposes of secretion, it becomes at least probable that, physiologically, pain may be considered as the interference through poisons or violence or otherwise with the process of nutrition as carried out in the finer arteries and blood vessels. Pleasure must from this standpoint be considered as physiologically the normal or rather hightened[sic] process of nutrition in the organs, and the nerve paths which connect these with the central nervous system would be probably the sympathetic.

In the simple instinctive act that lies behind every emotion, the vaso-motor system is called into action by the enlargement of the small blood vessels in the muscles and sweat glands. To maintain the blood pressure the finer blood vessels in the abdominal tracts are closed by the constrictors of that region, and the action of the heart may also be increased by the accelerators. The vaso-motor system thus is, in these simpler instinctive acts, in automatic connection with the senso-motor. The act must commence before the flow of blood can take place. It is in connection with this increased flow of blood that we have to assume the emotional tones of consciousness arise according to the discharge theory. Within the act it would answer only to interest. It is in the preparation for action that we find the qualitatively different emotional tones, and here we find increased flow of blood before the act. We find also what we may term symbolic stimuli, which tend to arouse

(164) the vaso-motor processes that are originally called out only by the instinctive acts. These stimuli in the form in which we can study them, seem to be more or less rhythmical repetitions of those moments in the act itself which call forth especially the vaso-motor response. In this form they are recognized as aesthetic stimuli, and may be best studied in the war and love dances. It is under the influence of stimuli of this general character that the emotional states and their physiological parallels arise. The teleology of these states is that of giving the organism an evaluation of the act before the coördination that leads to the particular reaction has been completed.

Notes

No notes

The original published version of this document is in the public domain. The Mead Project exercises no copyrights over the original text.

This page and related Mead Project pages constitute the personal web-site of Dr. Lloyd Gordon Ward (retired), who is responsible for its content. Although the Mead Project continues to be presented through the generosity of Brock University, the contents of this page do not reflect the opinion of Brock University. Brock University is not responsible for its content.

Fair Use Statement:

Scholars are permitted to reproduce this material for personal use. Instructors are permitted to reproduce this material for educational use by their students.

Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, for the purpose of profit or personal benefit, without written permission from the Mead Project. Permission is granted for inclusion of the electronic text of these pages, and their related images in any index that provides free access to its listed documents.